


out of nowhere

by SafelyCapricious



Series: things you find in a graveyard [2]
Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Soulmates, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 07:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20870732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: “So,” Warren says, trying to sound as casual as he possibly can. His father decided a few years back that wanting things too much is what turned him into a villain, and even as his mind continues to deteriorate from the nuclear exposure that gave him powers in the first place, he’ll still sometimes refuse to answer Warren’s questions if he thinks he ‘wants the answer too much’.





	out of nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> Title generated by the [Hozier random fanfic title generator](http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=22501) because titles are _hard_
> 
> This is part of my attempt at fictober. Day two! I haven't failed yet! Yay!
> 
> I've loved Warren/Layla since the first time I watched this movie (and I do love me some ridiculous Disney movies), and I've never met a pairing I didn't wanna do a soulmate take on so...I hope you enjoy.

“So,” Warren says, trying to sound as casual as he possibly can. His father decided a few years back that wanting things too much is what turned him into a villain, and even as his mind continues to deteriorate from the nuclear exposure that gave him powers in the first place, he’ll still sometimes refuse to answer Warren’s questions if he thinks he ‘wants the answer too much’. 

Warren contemplates his next move and lets the silence stretch, seeming to forget what he was about to say. He knows how to play chess, but his father doesn’t, not anymore, and it makes playing the game with him very interesting. Finally he moves his knight.

“So?” Barron Battle prompts him, moving his knight forward two places. 

“Hm?” Warren asks, looking up with a blank face and then letting his ‘realization’ show, “Oh, right.” He shrugs and says, “The other day mom was telling me about that time you took me to see the Witch. The uh, Witch of Destiny? When I was nine?”

“The Witch of Fate,” his father says, voice reverent. 

“Yeah,” Warren can feel his heart beat fluttering in his throat and he knows if he wasn’t there with the walls that dampened his powers he’d definitely have his fingers in flame, “her. But mom couldn’t remember why you took me there.” 

Took was the correct word to use. His dad had given up trying to play nice the year before, run away and abandoned both of them. He wasn’t doing anything _bad_ yet, not really, not the sorts of things he’d do later that would bring the Commander down on his head and land him here. So his mom had been suspicious when the Barron had shown up for Warren’s birthday, but not suspicious enough. 

He’d missed his party because he was kidnapped and dragged to the Witch’s house. He doesn’t remember what happened there, it’s all a blur of terror and bubbling liquids and a whole lot of incense. 

“Why, to give you your birthday present of course,” his father says like it should be obvious, moving again even though it’s Warren’s turn. 

“What was my present?” Warren asks, eyes on the board so he can’t try to stare the answer out of his father. 

“Your soulmate, of course – not everyone is lucky enough to know when they’ve met them. It’s a conspiracy, you see, the Government wants to keep you unhappy so they separate you from the mate of your soul.” His dad reaches out and grips his chin, meeting his eyes with mad eyed intensity. “But I, I gave them to you. The witch can make sure you know so you don’t lose them. You have to fight not to lose them.”His dad’s hand relaxes, falling limply and he stares at him with sorrow sketched into the lines of his face. “How is she? How is your mother?” 

Warren forces a smile and squeezes his dad’s hand. He wants to know so much more – like how can he reverse this, how can he make it stop – but now’s not the time. “She’s good, Mom is good.” 

***

“Is he still staring at me?” Will asks.

Layla turns her head just enough that she can see the table out of the corner of her eyes and feels her heart in her throat. She hadn’t been paying attention before, hadn’t looked at where he sat, while the table discussed Warren Peace and how he was staring at Will, because she was thinking about other things but now her mind is frantically digging over the conversation. “No,” she says, honestly, because he’s not staring at Will. Warren Peace is staring at _her_ and she doesn’t know why. 

Will accuses her of lying, moments later, but she _wasn_’_t_ and she doesn’t know if for some reason she just caught his attention then or if Will is just not following the actual line of his eyes or – she imagines she can still feel his gaze on her back and she’s not willing to check. 

She forgets it, soon enough, anyways. There are more important things to worry about, like the bullies and homework and trying to work up the nerve to ask her best friend out – plus, he’s not staring the next day. 

***

He’s been having the dreams for years – he doesn’t remember when they started, though his mom says it was right after his ninth birthday. He hadn’t thought much about them – he’d assumed, along with his mom, that his dad had brought him to the Witch to make sure he got _his_ powers, and not his mom’s. 

Jokes on him, he got mom’s. 

He doesn’t think the dreams are related to the spell or whatever the Witch did to him – he doesn’t remember much about that day at all, really, except for one clarifying moment of terror when he’d been looking into the eyes of the Witch and unable to look away.

They’re still normal dreams. It’s just that there’s always this girl in them. Even ones where it doesn’t make sense – even that nightmare he used to have when he was younger where he’s all alone.

He’s never alone in it after nine, she’s always there. 

Which he doesn’t think about a lot until his sophomore year and he sees her walking across the lawn and his heart is suddenly in his throat and he doesn’t know what to do.He didn’t think she was _real_. 

So he stares and stares and _stares_.

He’s not proud of it but he also thinks he might still be hallucinating or going mad or something – and it hurts behind his ribs to look away from her. 

And then, that evening, he tells his mom he’s going to go visit his father and he goes and he asks and he doesn’t get any fucking sense out of the man. Because he doesn’t believe in soulmates and he certainly doesn’t believe some super who’s using her powers to be a creepy witch has the ability to give them. 

So she’s not his soulmate, she’s just who the witch choose — somehow — to torment him with. He’s not sure what the spell or whatever actually does, beyond the dreams, but it does make him want her. 

Or, want her to be happy. Or maybe it’s just that he’s aware of her. Or _something_. He’s not honestly totally sure, but it’s a spell and it’s bullshit and he’s not going to do anything about it. 

He tells himself he can avoid her – she’s a freshmen, and a sidekick besides apparently – there’s no reason they’ll ever be in the same place. 

Later he finds out the dork she spends all her time with, the one he’d irrationally wanted to burn the hair off that entire first day, is Will Stronghold. The son of the man who put his father away for good.

Which he doesn’t care about – he doesn’t. His dad isn’t well, his brain is decaying from nuclear exposure and Warren wishes there was somewhere else he could be safe that wasn’t a fucking supermax but there’s not. So no, he’s not bitter that his dad got put away – but he is a little bitter that the Commander took away his mom’s chance to be the one to do it. 

Not that he’s going to say that to anyone, not when he hears them discussing his staring and they think it was at _Stronghold_. No, he’s glad for them to assume that. That’s…better.

He doesn’t know what he’d do if she was afraid of him, and apparently his staring is ‘scary’. 

It’s a stupid way to feel.

She’s nothing to him except for something this stupid spell has latched onto. 

He stops staring after a few days. He’s _able_ to stop staring after a few days. He limits himself to a glance in the morning just to see what ridiculously stupid thing she’s done with her hair today and what weird green outfit she’s wearing and then he doesn’t let himself look again. 

It’s good for his self-control or something.

The point is, he has it under control until Stronghold spills his lunch on him. 

It’s not about the lunch. (It’s a little about the lunch.) It’s about how she _looks_ at Stronghold all the time, like he hung the fucking moon and stars and how – strangely enough because if he believes the bullshit this is his soulmate and shouldn’t he be jealous? – Stronghold _doesn’t_ look at her like that. 

(He won’t realize until she’s staring at him with wide eyes at his work a few days later that he just wants her to be happy more than anything and he’s not sure what to do with that.) 

But he goes after him and then she’s there, and some others he doesn’t care about, and she’s _scared_. Oh, she’s hiding it, standing firm and proud and his heart thumps painfully in his chest and he suddenly wants to prove that he’s strong enough to protect her from anything, that she doesn’t ever have to be scared, and he forgets where he is for an instant and then he’s crashing through a wall. 

***

Layla’s pretty sure she was wrong before — about Warren staring at her.Or she convinces herself she was wrong. 

Because it doesn’t make sense. 

Sure, she wears bright clothes but they’re hardly the brightest and definitely not even the brightest at the lunch table! And she’s not the loudest out of everyone or anything, and okay, she’s got red hair and she knows that some people get teased for that (though she never has, for some reason?) but what could a fire starter have against _red _anyways? He’s got red in his hair! 

In any case, she’s convinced herself she was wrong when she comes face to face with him at maybe not the last place she’d expect to see him (the water park) but a close second (her favorite Chinese restaurant). 

And he’s looking at her now, obviously, because he’s talking to her and what kind of weirdo wouldn’t look at her while talking to her? But it feels familiar. 

Everything about him feels familiar and it makes her frown and then it makes her propose something so stupid she’s pretty sure she’s going to regret it for the rest of her life — and he agrees. 

He agrees and he smiles and — wow. 

If she didn’t have a crush on Will then she’d totally develop one for Warren, because wow. 

But she can’t, because she does have a crush on Will and she has since forever and she’s steady and steadfast like a tree. 

But it’s still a good smile. Just one she definitely is not appreciating. 

(And she’s not sure who looks more surprised when he agrees to help her anyways, him or her.) 

***

Upon reflection, agreeing to fake date the girl is probably not the best way to completely cut her out of his life. 

He’s starting to wonder if the real curse of the witch was to make him just make poor life choices, since soulmates are still definitely not a thing. 

(He’s also really hoping that Layla never figures out she could probably talk him into anything, he’s not sure he could handle her knowing that.) 

But she’s smiling again.

And she’s smiling at _him_. 

And that’s not nothing. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you also ship them come chat with me on [on tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites). 
> 
> I have to get to bed because I have to wake up to be somewhere at 2 am and I've made a lot of bad choices this week. So that's all for now! This is definitely under edited, but I hope you enjoyed anyways! Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!


End file.
